If Ann Coulter were to live in Russia, her writing would probably be similar to that of Yulia Latynina, one of my favorite Russian-language political commentators and critics of Putin's government.

Latynina's latest column, I believe, must be shared with all people living in Western countries, or at least with those not yet trapped inside the intellectual maze of their own invention. In this conflict of civilizations, winning requires clarity of vision -- something the West no longer has due to its postmodernist obsession with recalibrating and redefining itself.

Below is my somewhat loose translation of Latynina's column -- "loose" because, as you will see later, precision sometimes is the enemy of clarity.

"I'm all for free speech, but..." proclaims the chorus of Western intellectuals following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, imagining that their role in this tragedy is to make simple things look complicated. They are gravely misguided: there are no "buts" in that script.

In the 1940s, as scientists began to develop the theory of quantum electrodynamics, they discovered a weird problem in their equations: the electron mass seemed to be correct in the first approximation, but all further attempts to define it more precisely resulted in impossibly divergent series. The more they tried to refine the number, the more absurd it became, with the electron mass growing to infinity.

Finally the American physicist Richard Feynman introduced a cut-off point, suggesting to subtract infinity from infinity. In a work that won him the Nobel Prize, Feynman came up with a procedure called "renormalization." Roughly speaking, it prohibits endless refinements and claims that the first approximate value is the most correct. In other words, don't kill yourself with infinite refinements and use Occam's razor.

It seems we now need a similar cut-off point in order to understand what is happening in the real world. Whoever brings "renormalization" into public life will also deserve a Nobel Prize because, frankly, we're killing ourselves with infinite refinements.

The facts are as plain as a road sign: the French journalists were murdered for exercising free speech. They were real live people. The Islamists did it in order to intimidate the free world and take away its freedom of speech.

"But..." we hear from all directions, "but..."

"...But those cartoons were offensive to believers."

"...But they overstepped all sorts of boundaries."

"...But this is merely a mutual misunderstanding of each other's cultural traditions."

"...And anyway, let's not confuse terrorism with Islam, which is a peaceful religion."

"...And are you saying that Islam somehow promotes extremism? Are you really equating Islam with terrorism? That sounds like fascism! Shame on you!"

"...And aren't you forgetting that different cultures have different values?"

"...And why all the fuss about those dead journalists when more people are getting killed in the Iraqi war?

And so on and so forth, until after five or six loops of such "divergent series," the plain fact of a brutal murder transforms into an infinitely complex cultural phenomenon. And with it, anyone speaking against Islamic terrorism transforms into a narrow-minded bigot, ignorant of traditional cultures with their spiritual values, someone who unjustly smears all Muslims and forgets that the West is guilty before the Third World for colonialism.

Allow me another math metaphor. There is a mathematical concept of a "fuzzy set." It is vital in developing artificial intelligence and recognition technologies because our world, as it were, consists of fuzzy sets.

We call some women "beautiful" and some others we call "ugly." We say that some countries are "free" and some others are "dictatorships." But if we begin to refine our arguments, we will often find out that "free" countries lack certain freedoms, or that an "ugly" woman has a shapely chin, an attractive nose, or at least a mysterious color in her eyes. That's because beauty and freedom are fuzzy sets. And if your goal is infinite precision, you'll find neither beauty nor freedom.

Some things don't need to be precise.

As for the mutual misunderstanding of each other's cultural traditions, let's make one thing clear: some traditions are better than others.

At one time India had a tradition of self-immolation of widows in the husband's funeral pyres. The British colonizers could say, as modern intellectuals do, that this was just a different cultural tradition they had to respect. But the British disrespected local traditions and put up gallows next to the funeral pyres. Anyone who tried to throw a widow into the fire was hanged right next to it. That was the end of the burning of widows.

The Maori in New Zealand had a cultural tradition of cannibalism. A young warrior would not obtain a proper social status until he'd cut off the head of a man from another tribe. Once again, the British could start talking about the drama of mutually misunderstood cultural values, but they chose to ban cannibalism and head-hunting.

The Aztecs had a tradition of human sacrifice. But the narrow-minded bigot Hernando Cortes, who conquered Tenochtitlan, was not a multiculturalist and so he told the priests, their hair covered in dried human blood, to knock it off. That almost cost him his life, his victory, and Tenochtitlan.

The world has plenty of other spectacular cultural traditions. Some cultures practiced artificial cranial deformation by binding the heads of their infants. Others are still cutting out the clitoris of their young girls. The Etoro people of Papua New Guinea have a remarkable cultural tradition of all-inclusive pedophilia, as they believe young boys must ingest the semen of their elders daily from the age of 7 until they turn 17 to achieve adult male status and to properly mature and grow strong. The procedure is mandatory -- "it's for the children," don't you know.

So not all traditions are equal. Some traditions are absolutely evil. Europe, too, has given up on some of its traditions, like the burning of witches. And China has stopped the foot binding of little girls, along with its time-honored tradition of death by a thousand cuts.

Some may be surprised, but Islam at one point has also abandoned a few traditions. For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century Muslims didn't blow anyone up for free speech. On the contrary, their best leaders, such as Kemal Ataturk, or Mohammed Zahir Shah, or Reza Pahlavi brought their respective countries closer to Western standards.

It was only after the West betrayed its own standards by adopting moral relativity and multiculturalism, that former Ataturks and Zakir Shahs were replaced by Bin Ladens and the Kuashi brothers.

In this sense, the problem with the modern world is not the strengthening of Islamism. It is the weakening of the West, which keeps refining, recalibrating, and redefining itself to death.

It's a fool's errand, to look for precision in the world of fuzzy sets. As theoretical physicist Feynman once said, "it is really quite impossible to say anything with absolute precision, unless that thing is so abstracted from the real world as to not represent any real thing."

At this point in history, precision is the enemy of clarity. The West needs renormalization.

Somehow you manage to coalesce my random scattered observations of this world and place them into a petri dish of ideas where they can then develop into more focused observations on my part. This is most appreciated and a great relief!

(I hope that last paragraph made sense.)

This does remind of the first time I heard Rush. He was speaking my language.

The problem isn't really precision, in my view. It's that the chattering class refuse to be precise. The continual redefining of the language makes the language completely meaningless. It's kind of an upside down Tower of Babel scenario. War is Peace. Truth is a lie. Unemployment is a blessing. The list of absurdities is almost infinite. And because the chattering class refuse to be precise, those who have a mindset that is absolute are always several steps ahead. Trying to reason with the unreasonable is folly. It doesn't matter why they hate us. It only matters that they do. There is only one solution to the kind of fanaticism that they display and it doesn't involve group hugs.

A most brilliant distillation of the concepts surrounding the blight of multiculturalism in the West. The KGB have certainly exceeded beyond their wildest dreams of infecting Western intelligentsia with this claptrap. And by extension, the political leadership thereof. As Pamalinsky also observed, I too have grown increasingly skeptical and even hostile to the notion of "cultural equity", but I've never seen the whole concept placed into such stark contrast in a single, concise article. This is definitely a keeper and a sharer. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing it to our kollektive attention.

The problem isn't really precision, in my view. It's that the chattering class refuse to be precise. I believe the chattering class thrive on using the mask of precision to obfuscate their true agenda which is simply Western traditions are bad/All other's traditions are good. Whatever mental gymnastics are required to achieve this outcome are acceptable. All other opinions are "unenlightened", period. And being unenlightened, by their definition, is the gravest of sins.

The problem isn't really precision, in my view. It's that the chattering class refuse to be precise. I believe the chattering class thrive on using the mask of precision to obfuscate their true agenda which is simply Western traditions are bad/All other's traditions are good. Whatever mental gymnastics are required to achieve this outcome are acceptable. All other opinions are "unenlightened", period. And being unenlightened, by their definition, is the gravest of sins.Before the Glorious Multicultural Revolution, this used to be known as cognitive dissonance. If one plays one's (multicult) cards right, it can be quite profitable.

The problem with the left is they cannot use both side of their brains. An example of this is epileptics who have something in their brains severed to keep from having serious convulsions cannot name objects if perceived with the right side of the brain so they just make up what the object is. Also people with no shame have no ability to reason. This is the lefts problem. As the bible says in 1 Timothy 4:

1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

I really think that this is a repeat of the Allied Powers' relationship with Nazi Germany before WWII. They came with peaceful intentions, "Oh, we're just a country, we don't want to take over other countries!", and we appeased them with gifts and complacency. But soon the Nazis were taking over many countries and sending people to concentration camps to be put to death. Islam isn't really different, they came with good intentions, "Oh, we're just a religion, we don't want to infringe on other religions!", and right now we're appeasing them with gifts of complacent, politically-correct junk that hails and protects them and denounces all that's good and decent in the world. If the Nazi narrative tells us anything, soon they'll be going after those of other religions, putting them in prisons via sharia law, and putting them to death. It's already happening with ISIS.

Although, political correctness is really Orwell's 1984 Newspeak come alive, and in the book Newspeak is really absurd when you look at it from an Oldspeak view. But, just like in 1984, the young are being taught the Newspeak of political correctness, and if 1984 tells us anything, soon it will be the only language they know.

And as for Comrade Red's example of "recalibration" in the 2nd to last paragraph, You can put a pound on a scale and recalibrate it to 0 and repeat, but if you do that enough, soon the scale will break from the weight, and you won't have a scale anymore. If you keep piling on more political correctness but say and get the public to accept that it's normal, and repeat, soon the PC will get so extreme that you can't even say a sentence without offending someone, and soon the PC system will break.

Komissar al-Blogunov

We need to remember that Hitler was a vegetarian.Huh. Never knew. Thanks Comrade Kommissar!

Although, the way that Vegetarians and Vegans act towards non-Vegetarians/Vegans is quite similar to how the Nazis treated the Jews & Allied soldiers. All with the "I have a better/more conscious diet than you evil meat-eaters!" attitude and all that...

I don't believe it has anything to do with being vegetarian. I'm vegan and I don't support socialist fascism. Each to their own and leave me alone is my approach to life.Tsk. This sounds dangerously Individualistic. Beware, comrade!

The problem isn't really precision, in my view. It's that the chattering class refuse to be precise. The continual redefining of the language makes the language completely meaningless. It's kind of an upside down Tower of Babel scenario. War is Peace. Truth is a lie. Unemployment is a blessing. The list of absurdities is almost infinite. And because the chattering class refuse to be precise, those who have a mindset that is absolute are always several steps ahead. Trying to reason with the unreasonable is folly. It doesn't matter why they hate us. It only matters that they do. There is only one solution to the kind of fanaticism that they display and it doesn't involve group hugs.Dear Kapitan Kangaroo Kourt,

You are absolutely right! Precision of the language and the actual meaning of words is the left's enemy! They love to make a constantly moving target of ideas, using words and their redefinition as a means to their ends. In my experience, it is absolutely impossible to have a meaningful conversation with any of them. And, I mean ANY, including a lefty brother. Heartbreaking.

A few years back I worked with a guy who thought spelling words correctly was really unnecessary. He felt that if you can just "sound them out" people will get the idea, especially when texting.

When I calmly explained that correct spelling lets one know the origin and true meaning of the word, he just brushed it off as irrelevant.

I look up words all the time! I love doing it. It's fun. I like truth. It makes me happy.Even if I'm wrong. ; • )

The problem isn't really precision, in my view. It's that the chattering class refuse to be precise. The continual redefining of the language makes the language completely meaningless. It's kind of an upside down Tower of Babel scenario. War is Peace. Truth is a lie. Unemployment is a blessing. The list of absurdities is almost infinite. And because the chattering class refuse to be precise, those who have a mindset that is absolute are always several steps ahead. Trying to reason with the unreasonable is folly. It doesn't matter why they hate us. It only matters that they do. There is only one solution to the kind of fanaticism that they display and it doesn't involve group hugs.Dear Kapitan Kangaroo Kourt,

You are absolutely right! Precision of the language and the actual meaning of words is the left's enemy! They love to make a constantly moving target of ideas, using words and their redefinition as a means to their ends. In my experience, it is absolutely impossible to have a meaningful conversation with any of them. And, I mean ANY, including a lefty brother. Heartbreaking.

~Deleted Irrelevant Info~

The target for the left is the horizon, they even say it sometimes in speeches. "Climate change solutions are on the horizon" is an illustrative example you've probably seen an iteration of. The problem with horizons is that you can never get closer to them, you could infinitely go towards a horizon but you'd still never to the physical horizon. It's the same with the left, you can keep redefining and legislating and complying to their every whim but you'll never get close to their goal. And, as you said, their goal is a moving target, so they can tell you, using the horizon analogy again, "The goal is to the east!" and then a few minutes later say "The goal is to the west!", and since they essentially work the levers and control most in power and with influence, they don't have to worry about resistance. And if they ever do get resistance, they usually whine like babies and initiate massive internet campaigns that people don't have to actually accomplish anything to participate in to get what they want.

The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until the day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology. ~ Ayn Rand

When asked if they could point to North Korea on a map many college students didn't know what a map was

CNN: We must bring America into the 21st century by replacing the 18th century Constitution with 19th century poetry

Pelosi: 'We have to impeach the president in order to find out what we impeached him for'

BREAKING: As of Saturday July 8, 2017, all of Earth's ecosystems have shut down as per Prince Charles's super scientific pronouncement made 96 months ago. Everything is dead. All is lost. Life on Earth is no more.

DNC to pick new election slogan out of four finalists: 'Give us more government or everyone dies,' 'Vote for Democrats or everyone dies,' 'Impeach Trump or everyone dies,' 'Stop the fearmongering or everyone dies'

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" is humanity's last chance to save the Earth before it ends five years ago

Experts: The more we embrace diversity the more everything is the same

Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote

The Evolution of Dissent: on November 8th the nation is to decide whether dissent will stop being racist and become sexist - or it will once again be patriotic as it was for 8 years under George W. Bush

Venezuela solves starvation problem by making it mandatory to buy food

China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"

Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'

Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%

America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith

Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine

Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET

Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths

Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'

Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State

President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise